THE 



National Geographic Magazine 



Vol. X MARCH, 1899 No. 3 



THE ORIGINAL TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



By Hon. David J. Hill, LL. D., 



Assistant Secretary of State 



In retracing the development of our country we are led back 

 to its infancy — to the cradle around which were already grouped 

 the forces which have determined the destiny of the nation. 

 We cannot too often be recalled to the rude simplicity of that 

 earlier time or too often reminded of the elemental sources of 

 our national life — so near to nature, so little affected by the art 

 or thought of man. 



A great continent, an unknown wilderness, rich with every 

 gift of nature, lies waiting for the men who are to awake it from 

 its sleep of ages, to come across the sea. Strange ships enter its 

 bays and harbors and penetrate its broad and navigable rivers, 

 but it still sleeps on ; for the strangers come only to gather gold 

 among its sands, not to make it theirs by pledges of honest toil. 

 But at last are united the two essentials of a nation — a land and 

 a people ; for while the land lies waste and men are in ceaseless 

 migration, a nation cannot exist. When land and people are 

 wedded by permanent settlement, when man by toil evokes from 

 nature her power to satisfy his domestic needs, and nature re- 

 sponds by kindling within him the flame of local affections, the 

 wheels of society are set in motion, the economic and political 

 forces begin their operation, and the process of national evolu- 

 tion has commenced. 



I. THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CONTINENT 



The discovery of this continent was destined to deflect all the 

 currents of human history and to offer a home to new nations ; 



